January 2006 – Page 3

associations

Small things that add up to the big picture: just the other day I found a very nice mashup version of Elvis & The Wailers (!) performing "Crying in the Chapel" via Andreas wonderful blog (Germany’s most active blogger?), so I took that opportunity to change the mp3 ringtone on my mobile phone from "I Get Along" by The Libertines into "Crying In The Chapel" by Elvis Presley.
Yes, ringtones ARE important. Another favoured ringtone is Franco Luambo Makiadi‘s "Attention Na Sida". Some years ago, when Nokia mobiles could only be programmed with monotone ringtones, I succesfully managed to transcript/transfer Franco’s tune onto my mobile. Nowadays, all it takes is a decent (and free!) Audio editor like Audacity, cut the desired 10 to 40 seconds sequence, save it as mp3 and transfer it onto a mobile phone.
And there’s this link to Graham Chapman’s memorial service in 1989 (via Spreeblick & Codingmonkeys) – Graham played Brian in The Life of Brian. Yes, IMDB, the Internet Movie Data Base has it all. Right there, I found a pic of Elvis and realized that Graham and Elvis share the same Bday – January 8th. So, what’s the connection between both of them despite their bday? They are dead but continue to live in our memories and maybe also inspired some of us in one way or another.
And isn’t that what living is all about?

Kudos to Andreas for directing me to The Hype Machine! :-)

pimp my calendar

Lounge72™ once again bestows us with a calendar for 2006 and tells us to (1) download it (PDF files), (2) print it out and (3) "put it up at a nice place in your room and send us a picture" :

Awesome.

Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-RESPONSE? (DPSIR)

Interesting to note that a recent opinion poll on Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper website reveals that out of 3085 votes, 52,9% of all voters think that the Government of Kenya is RESPONSIBLE for the current famine in parts of Kenya.

There must be a reason why the folks over at the DN were asking for responsibility (per se) instead of the actual cause of that famine.

SMART status bad (2)

To all of those that keep on searching for "S.M.A.R.T. ( Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Tool) status bad" and land on my blog, looking for answers on what your hard disk drive (HDD) actually tries to tell you with this message – let me just mention this:

When my 160 GB Samsung SP1614N HDD came up with that message some time ago, I did a longer surface scan using Samsungs HDD tool / Diagnostic Program (as required by Samsungs RMA service/Warranty) which said that the HDD has bad sectors. I then printed the log file on paper, made a copy of the receipt and returned the HDD together with those papers to the dealer where I bought it. After about 4 weeks time, I got a brand new 160 GB HDD by Samsung in exchange.
Since Samsung’s P80 series seems to have some problems, it might be wiser to use those HDDs as external back-up drives only (that is, mine failed after only 7 months and I’m not a power-user). However, I still went for another Samsung HDD because they offer a good cost-performance value.

déj? vu

The beauty of living in upcountry, rural & remote (really LOST) places like this kijiji (village) over here in Germany is that it sometimes reminds of the “Place of Cold Waters”, also known as the “Green Grey City in the Sun” or just the “City of Nairobi” in Kenya.
Back in those days when KBC aired boring tv shows and KTN only offered phoney BlueBand commercials, I would go to Sarit Centre and borrow one of those “brand new copies” which often turned out to be camera-copies from a cinema in Karachi.
I understand that things are a bit different today and that the media coverage in Nairobi itself is much better. However, having arrived at home with such a VHS tape back in those days, eagerly awaiting two relaxing hours of pure entertainment, something very common would happen – something, experts call “power failure”.
Kenya being the country of my choice, those power failures never really changed my mood and I often found other interesting things to do like going out and enjoying a Tusker in Waruku and talking politics with Kamau, Njoroge and Wachira.

Two days ago – after all those years of wondering how to do it – I eventually managed to succesfully connect my computer with my televisioni using this conglomeration of cables and cinch, svhs & scart connectors:

Of course, Murphy’s Law being the prevailing law of nature technology, things wouldn’t be that easy and I also had to download THIS great little programme to get things going with my older Nvidia GF3 Ti 200 video card (hey hey, NERD-content generates blog-traffic! :-) and a short test with the whole installation turned out to be positive.
So there I was: ready to enjoy “Hotel Rwanda” in JKE’s jua kali Home Entertainment System (JKHES®)!

Five minutes after the movie had started, my old friend by the name of “power failure” came back and switched off everything. For a second.
Well, I told my visitors something like “hakuna shida” – and that I’d be disappointed because I was expecting a longer power failure….
Just as said those words, power went off again, stayed off for about 2hrs and there it was again: the reminiscence of Nairobi.

Selma

Remember that credit card-seized computer from Time Trax (on KTN back in those days)?

Well, seems like someone had an interesting idea for 2006:
" It is not an actual or planned product. Images are obviously made with GIMP. This is my vision or prediction for 2006. Read it as my pet peeves about today’s iPods or mobile phones – cant keep them in a wallet, limited storage, limited processing capability, need for a charger, monopolistic service providers who try to squeeze every pennies out of your pocket for silly things like incoming calls…. I am just tossing an idea, catch it and build it if you want :-)"

Brilliant.